A conventional hard disk drive includes a head disk assembly (HDA) and a printed circuit board assembly (PCBA) attached to a disk drive base of the HDA. The HDA can include, inter alia, at least one magnetic disk, a spindle motor for rotating the disk(s), and a head stack assembly. The spindle motor further includes a spindle motor hub that is rotatably attached to the disk drive base. Many of these disk drive components are assembled using conventional screws.
As a result of continuing disk drive miniaturization, many disk drive components have become too small to be consistently, speedily and reliably handled by human hands. In particular, the screws used in smaller disk drives are difficult to pick up, couple to a screwdriver and drive into a selected threaded hole. Such issues have led to the development of electric screwdriver systems. A typical electric screwdriver requires an operator to pick screws from a shaker tray before driving them into designated fixtures. That is, before driving a screw, the operator must swing the electric screwdriver over to the shaker tray, couple a screw to the bit of the electric screwdriver and then swing the electric screwdriver in position over the disk drive to drive the screw. After the screw has been driven, the operator must once again swing the electric screwdriver back over the shaker tray to couple the next screw to the electric screwdriver. This repetitive process of moving the electric screwdriver back and forth between the shaker tray and the disk drive is time consuming and can decrease a manufacturing line's yield.
Electric screwdrivers with automatic screw feeding systems do exist but typically rely on a blow feed system to feed the screws to the screwdriver. Such blow feed systems use a blast of air to carry a screw from its source to a position in which it may be engaged by the screwdriver's bit. This blast of air escapes from the screwdriver in the vicinity of the bit and may thus carry particulate matter and other contaminants to the work area. Electric screwdrivers featuring blow feed systems are, therefore, unsuitable for environments in which contamination should be minimized, such as clean room environments.
There is therefore a need for an improved electric screwdriver assembly with automatic screw feeding.